The Will of Fire: Smouldering Embers
by ryubimaru
Summary: The first of the 'will of fire' series. In this story we follow Naruto's life from his birth to entrance into the acadamy. Will contain both anime and manga material, as well as movie. No paring in this book but in sequels should be obvious.


**The Will of Fire: Smouldering Embers**

_AN: Welcome to another Naruto fanfiction by Ryubimaru. Those of you, who have read the beginnings of my take on the Perfection challenge, will find this story almost a complete opposite of the main component of that story, namely bloodlines and possible hanyou transformations._

_In this series of stories we will walk through Naruto's life from beginning to end, birth to death. This is the first segment __'Smouldering Embers'__ and will cover his birth through to his joining the academy at about age 6. You will find this sticking almost religiously to cannon event-wise. At least up until the major deviance that will take place in the second half of the second book, (a.k.a. Regular cannon start). Well enough waffle here you go, today on the aniversry of Naruto's birth 10/10/10._

_Disclaimer: I don't own any thing in the Naruto world._

**Prologue: The Old Flame Fades**

It was a calm clear night. To almost everyone in Konoha, it was the same as any other night, nothing unusual, and nothing out of place. But to one Sarutobi Hiruzen, it was anything but normal or safe. You see while he was no longer the Hokage, he still had all the clearance and knowledge that had come with the job and that included the whereabouts of the Kyuubi no Yoko.

This was why he was currently on alert while he sat in his old office. Minato had gone to a special bunker a few miles away under the pretence of 'Official business that requires his presence'. While on the surface that was true, it was mostly just to mask his absence from the masses.

The full truth was that he, along with two platoons of ANBU and Hiruzen's own wife, were going to make sure the Kyuubi didn't escape while it's Jinchuriki was giving birth, one Uzumaki Kushina, an orphan from the destroyed Uzushiogakure no sato in Uzu no kuni. Hiruzen had his suspicions on the father but had decided to wait until he saw the child before beginning his prodding, even though that day Jiraiya had run through the village shouting "I'm gonna be a Godfather" had been a major give away.

'_Honestly,' _he thought with a slight chuckle, _'I thought I taught him better than to go spreading dangerous rumours around in public. Oh well, maybe they'll reach Tsunade and convince her to come back and visit her family. She is related to them through her grandmother, Mito-sama after all.'_

Suddenly a massive pulse of foul chakra swept over the village snapping him out of his thoughts instantly. He jumped out of the window and ran up the wall of the tower before turning around and looking for the source. It wasn't even a second later that an enormous cloud of summoning smoke erupted from the centre of the village.

_Oh dear Kami.' _He thought in horror as the smoke began to clear, revealing the Kyuubi no Yoko in all its glory. He immediately leapt into action, calling the ANBU to him as he did and banished all thoughts of worry for his wife and successor, he would have to trust they got away in time.

xXx

Kakashi was angry, no that's not right, he was livid. He had been enjoying himself from the dual sensation of making Gai mad and reading his new 'adult literature', when suddenly out of nowhere a burst of chakra and plume of smoke had delivered the Kyuubi of legend, right on top of the only bookstore to sell the perverted sannin's new Ichaicha novel, crushing it. This meant vengeance.

As he raced in he barely even noticed that he was leaving Gai the speed demon in the dust. Once he reached the area the Kyuubi had been smashing apart he proceeded to try and ram a _Raikiri_ into the demon's eye. Unfortunately in his rage he had forgotten to uncover his Sharingan and didn't notice the tail until he had been swatted like a fly, only a timely catch from a longer haired Rin had saved him from becoming one with the rubble of the bookstore he wanted to avenge so badly.

"Kakashi, be more careful next time." She complained, while activating a quick diagnostic jutsu to check he was okay. Seeing he had a few broken ribs and a slight concussion she quickly began healing him. "Honestly, you're acting more and more like Obito every day. This isn't a joke today Kakashi, this is serious."

By the time the glow faded from her hands the entire first response team was on the ground, unconscious or worse and the main force lead by the Sandaime had arrived. Kakashi jumped back into the fray without a word, pulling his Hi-ate off his eye as he went. She paid him no mind though as she joined the effort to pull the survivors away from the carnage and try to heal them.

xXx

Umino Iruka was completely distraught. He had been with the other academy students and civilians when the news that the entire reactionary squad had been taken out, including his parents. Refusing to believe his only family was dead, he had rushed out of the hidden bunker before anyone could stop him. As he approached the battlefield that had been moved to the forest surrounding the village, he could see an area off to the side that seemed to be an emergency hospital of sorts.

As he ran over he saw that one of the healers, a brown-haired lady with purple rectangles on her cheeks, seemed to sag in on herself barely remaining conscious from the sheer amount of chakra she must have used since the start of the sudden battle. When he reached her he saw his parents had been her last patients, he had a moment of hope that they would be okay, but he couldn't see any of the motions that would indicate breathing.

"Mother, Father, wake up, please!" He begged as he fell to his knees, tears streaming down his face. It was no good, both were dead.

"I'm sorry," came a small exhausted voice from his left, his head snapped up and saw that the voice had come from the exhausted medic. He was surprised to see that she could only have been about 4 or 5 years older than him at the most, and she had clearly been here since the start of the attack. He was amazed that she could possibly even be conscious at this point.

But all that was smothered in a petty rage that of all people, she couldn't have gotten to his parents sooner. He was so angry he turned toward the battle and charged in, hoping he could at least hit the demon just once. He was so focused he didn't see the building on his right literally explode under the force of a barrages worth of deflected kunai attached to explosive tags.

He didn't notice the molten remains of a kunai, flying toward him as the shrapnel shot in every direction. He only noticed when he felt someone's arm catch him around the neck and shoulders, pushing him back just far enough for the projectile to give him a deep scar across his nose and cheeks, instead of through his head.

As his butt hit the ground his saviour fell to the ground on his left, unmoving. In too much shock to feel the pain he looked down and saw that his saviour was the medic kunoichi from before, and that the kunai she had saved him from had cut into her back much deeper than his own cut, just below her neck.

He stared at the wound in numb horror. That sort of wound should kill someone; his classes at the academy had given a great many examples of such wounds. This ninja, barely older than himself, who had failed to save his parents, had risked her own life to save him from certain death.

As he stared at her she suddenly convulsed and groaned slightly. That snapped him out of his shock enough to realise that if she was going to live, she would need to see a medic immediately. He jumped up and started trying to attract some attention, but just as he got one chunin to come help him carry her back, the Kyuubi formed an amazingly powerful, black chakra ball right in front of its mouth for the second time that night.

His only thought was to hope he'd at least see his parents again in the afterlife. But then a yellow and white blur shot from the top of the Hokage monument and, seconds before impact with the demon pulled a massive toad the same size as the Kyuubi out of nowhere.

Then before he could thank the gods that the Yondaime had saved them, the beast and white cloak man had disappeared. The sound of a massive explosion came from in the distance, but he wasn't worried now. All he had to do was get the ninja who had saved his life to the hospital, before lying down for the night. This was far too stressful an evening for him.

xXx

Sarutobi Hiruzen never liked feeling useless, in fact it was one of the reasons he was as strong as he was today. But now his successor had taken the choice out of his hands and erected a chakra barrier, one that kept everything with even a tiny amount of chakra, both in and out of it. It was an impressive feat of both fuuin-jutsu (seal techniques) and kekkai-jutsu (barrier techniques), and he was willing to bet that only a master of both branches could replicate it. It was, after all, Minato's specialty.

As he stood there, as close as he could get to them, he knew what Kushina would try to do. 'Drag the Kyuubi back in so it would take years for it to reform from her death'. Unfortunately that would only give them nine years before it returned to this very spot, angrier than ever.

When his back up arrived he gave them a rundown of what was going on, while never taking his eyes off the struggling Bijuu. He told one that it would probably be safe enough to release the 18 years old and younger ninjas from their protection barrier, and he went off to do so.

Shifting his eyes to Minato, he noticed something in the air behind him. He couldn't tell what it was due to it being shrouded by blur and haze, but he did see the look in the blonde's eyes. He hated that look; it was the same on his sensei gave him before heading off to delay the pursuit force from Kumo during the second war. That look alone told him that he would have to deal with all the paperwork again, and that thought alone had him wanting to smash the barrier down with fists alone.

Suddenly the blur shot out something vaguely arm-shaped which grabbed the Kyuubi and pulled a massive fox shaped chakra mass from it, and sealed it in Minato's stomach. Hiruzen now recognised the technique form the numerous discussions he, Jiraiya, and Minato had, had with Kushina about her clan's famous sealing techniques. The Shiki Fuujin, a Jutsu that summons the death god himself to seal the spirit and chakra of the target inside themselves and then offering their merged souls to the god as payment.

Unfortunately it seemed that the Kyuubi had more strength than Minato's final jutsu, as it was still there, alive and kicking even if it was barely a quarter of its original size. What happened next really made him feel his age, Minato sealed the remainder of the Kyuubi's chakra into the baby who was, if his guess was right, his own son, and drew up a seal key inside a toad. As he explained what had just happened to his back up, the Kyuubi made a desperate last attack at the child, only to be stopped by both Minato and Kushina, this proved his theory on the young child's heritage and made him feel the weight of his old bones more keenly. The council wasn't going to take this well.

xXx

_Okay that's it for the Prologue. I know it may seem pieced together, but it is just supposed to set the scene for chapter 1. I went a little off cannon with the battle but basically the Iruka part is a necessary alteration for the story._

_Anyway please read and review._


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